Letter: Shame on U.S. for role in coup

Friday, April 19, 2002 | 5:05 a.m.

It is disgusting that the United States, the greatest advocate of democracy in the world, actually engages in instigating coups against democratically elected governments that do not follow the capitalist party line.

Either you are for democracy or you aren't, and a fairly and popularly elected communist or even fascist government is just as much a democracy as one which toes the free market.

The recent attempted coup in Venezuela is the latest example of U.S. right-wing meddling with a duly elected leader with leanings farther to the left than they like.

Another example was the Nixon administration's CIA-instigated overthrow of the Allende government of Chile in the '70s.

This explains why I have to gag when I hear President Bush and other right-wingers piously expound on and tie themselves to "freedom and democracy."

They support democracy only when they agree with it or, more important, when it agrees with them.

DANIEL OLIVIER

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